(Newswire.net — August 25, 2020) — Picture it: you’re camping out in the woods and have volunteered to cook a meal for your group. You have the food and materials you need and feel ready to start.
The problem? You’ve never cooked over a campfire before.
Campfire cooking can be a memorable experience while camping with family, but without proper awareness of how to cook over a fire, it can be unsuccessful.
To help you out for your next outdoor adventure, here are the top 5 campfire cooking mistakes and ways to avoid them.
1. Don’t Cook Directly Over the Fire
While cooking over an open flame is one of the first things we think of when camping with family, it is usually the wrong way to go.
Because you cannot adjust the heat or flame, what you may cook could easily burn or be cooked unevenly.
When cooking over a fire, make sure the coals are very hot, use different sides for wood and coal, and use a cooking stand or grill for even cooking.
2. Don’t Use Too Much Wood
Wood for campfires can burn down quickly if made into a large fire, leaving you without a direct flame and too-hot coals.
When building a fire, certain types of wood for campfires are acceptable, of which popular options are hickory, ash, and oak. Start a fire in a pre-dug fire pit with kindling and small logs and then let it burn for half an hour, tossing wood in as needed. Newspapers, twigs, or other dry grasses are also acceptable to build a fire with.
3. Use the Correct Cooking Equipment
Not every material will work best while using cooking equipment to make food for camping trips. Plastic melts over an open flame; therefore any cooking utensils made of metal will work best for ensuring proper cooking time.
Go for other utensils that work best for the outdoors, such as cast iron ovens, Dutch ovens, stainless steel tongs, and camping stoves are all great items suitable for the outdoors.
4. Don’t Be Impatient
Just because you want to cook your food fast like at home, it doesn’t mean the campfire itself is hot enough to cook food. Depending on the weather where you’re camping with family, a fire can take 30 to 45 minutes to burn at the correct conditions.
Letting your fire burn correctly will ensure your fire lasts for the rest of the evening!
5. Make Easy Recipes
While some may think it too simple to know how to cook breakfast over a campfire, you do not want to get too fancy with your recipes. Meals that are filling, such as a mountain man breakfast or one-pot meals with complex carbs and protein, will be easy to cook and satisfy anyone sitting around the campfire.
Enjoy camping and don’t make these campfire cooking mistakes!
While it is easy to make campfire cooking mistakes if you haven’t done it before, follow these tips to succeed. If you do, you’ll never feel unprepared for your outdoor adventures again.
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